The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-01-30
BOSTON BUDS GO BEGGING
FOR HUSBANDS. The MEN WON'T
BITE,
Because They Say the Girls Come
Too High-GrOwlng Inde-
pendence OF Women.

oOSiON, mAob., Oduuai1 ~ II
was in Back Bay horse car one day
last week. A charming old lady.
with soft gray hair, framing face in
which intelligence and refinement
were blended, was carrying on a
conversation with man much
younger than herself, which was so
interesting that more than one of
her fellow passengers found himself
listening involuntarily.
What you say is very true, she
began, in answer to some remark
made by her companion. THE good
old fashion of marrying and giving
in marriage seems to be quite pass
ing out of repute. You, as we'll as
/, can remember time when mar
riage announcements occupied
much greater space in the columns
of the daily papers than they do
now, and when old maids were not
a common feature in every family. l
often wonder what has caused the
change. Are meu less susceptible,
or girls less attractiveP
Neither one nor the other" said
the gentleman, decidedly, You
must go deeper than that to discover
the true reason of it all, and realize
that the fault is to be found in the
times in which we live. Marriage
has become like everything elsa
matter Of gain or loss. Sentiment
has had its day, and never enters
into the question of matrimonial set
Elements any more than into the
fitting out of an expedition to the
North Pole. Love no longer exists,
except among the lower classes, and
Corydou and Phyllis, the new be-
trothed, prattle pleasantly of bank
accouutsS and government bonds in
stead of breathing fond vows and
pledges like weak minded Arcadians
of yore. Temporal mutantur, ct nos
mutamur in ills" With which
trite reflection the speaker paused
aud smiled cynic's smile. The lit
tie old lady, however, was not easily
convinced, and argued her side Of
the case with clever energy till she
left the car in Marlboro street, hav-
ing set all her neighbors to thinking
seriously upon the point in question.
THERE THE TROUBLE LIES.
Now, everybody in the universe is
aware by this time that there are TO-
600 more women than men in Massa-
chusetts, fact which is kept promi-
nently before the eyes OF newspaper
readers, and which in itself would
seem sufficient excuse for the COM
paratively small number of marriages
that take place each year. But this
has, really, very little to do with it.
The trouble lies in the way our
daughters of today are brought up.
Young Edwin, well born, we'll edu-
Gated, with refined tastes and habits,
casts envious eyes a. Angelina, whom
he would like to have and to hold for
his very own. But, alas she lives
on Beacon street, in house where
luxuries are necessities and necessi-
ties luxuries. Her amusements and
occupations are of the most innocent,
but expensive sort. Her clothes
amount to yearly total which some
times causes her millionaire parent
to groan. She paints in water colors
and plays Chopin with real brilliancy,
but she knows nothing more about
practical housekeeping or economy
than about the climate of Saturn.
Now, how is Edwin going to ask this
delicate young creature to leave her
fathers roof, with all its splendid
comforts, and bury herself in tiny
cottage in Longwood or Dorchester,
with very limited income and the
simplest of menages? Impossible!
NO MAN OF SPIRIT
would ask any girl to make so ire
mendous sacrifice for him. Bust
ness is apt to be dull in Boston. A
young man gets on but slowly, what
ever his push and persistence may be,
and only climbs upward as death re-
moves the old fogies and gives him
chance in their stead. It's i'll
waiting for dead mems shoes, and it
will be many year before poor Ed
wins income reaches $4,000 year
the sum he has fixed as the mini
mum possession for a matrimonial
candidate. So he abandons the idea
Of marriage as impracticable, leads
bachelors life at the club and in his
lodgings, dimes out a great deal,
stands in the corners at balls and
dances, and manages to get up great
reputation as a cynic and wit of the
La Rochefoucauld order. When his
finances would permit him to marry,
he has entirely outgrown the desire
for any such venture, and dies as he
has lived, victim to the false spirit
of the age.
There is another gentleman who
oontemplates matrimony. He has a
snug little income of his own, left
him by father or uncle. He, too,
has felt suspicious thrills about the
heart when he is brought into the
neighborhood of some lovely belle,
and at times has been rash enough to
think seriously of establishing
household of his own. But the pru-
dence and forethought that never for
sake man of the centory remind
him that many of his present pleas
ures must be sacrificed the moment
that he sets up his Lares and Pc
mates in a permanent place. The
income that is lavish for one becomes
bare competence for two. He must
give up his club, his yacht, those de-
Iightful little trips to New York that
are such expensive forms of jollity.
And after all, is the game really
worth the candle? As a result Of
sober reflection, selfshness prevails,
and Mynheer Egoist settles down
contentedly for the rest of his ex St
ence, to enjoy the slender raternal
inheritance after his own fashion,
while the lovely Miss Bangs, won
dering at the sudden ceasings of his
attentions, pines away in the lonely
gorgeousness OF her fathers man
sion and makes one more in the long
list OF Massachusetts, spinsters.
THEY COME HIGH.
Wives are expensive Injuries"
says this mercenary grumbler at the
club. II heard old Brown declare,